Reforming fictions Book

This book was the winner of the 2013 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation award (long form). After seeing mention of it on a website, I was intrigued enough to get it from the library (I actually had to put in a 'suggestion for purchase', and when it came in, it promptly had a wait list).

When I got the book, it wasn't quite what I expected. Not that this is a bad thing; it's just a different thing.

First of all, it's a tiny book. Much smaller in size than most books, both in area and in being only 150 pages. Normally this would make it a book finished in a day. But the writing is so dense that it requires a quiet room and a lot of concentration.

I'm not sure I would call it a novel, or even sf or fantasy, but it was very interesting.

It is written as an examination of maps of Victoria/Hong Kong, in roughly chronological order, along with a few references to other historical documents (journals and the like). If you're looking for a plot, you're wasting your time. But it does examine how a city grows and evolves.

The fantasy (or perhaps magic realism is the better term for it) elements come from brief mentions here and there. For example, in the earlier segments there are references to the island appearing and disappearing from maps at various early times. There's the street that forms a perfect square, with identical houses on each side, and no house numbers, making it easy to get lost. There's mentions of potential alien invasions. And then there's the idea that when the international airport was built, there might have been plans to make the entire island moveable.

Definitely not a novel, but it is a perfect jewel box thought experiment to sink into. I enjoyed it, but finished it rather confused about what I'd just read. I do see it as a book to revisit every few years, and would expect to find new things every time, much like the city.